1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that ejects ink droplets to perform printing and sheet drying device, and in particular, to a printing apparatus and sheet drying device that, in a conveyance process of a sheet, blow air on the sheet to perform drying.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a printing apparatus that ejects ink droplets from a print head onto a sheet to perform printing, there is an apparatus of a type having a drying device that blows air on a printed sheet to dry ink droplets placed on the sheet. As described, by blowing air on the printed sheet to perform drying, the ink droplets placed on the sheet can be more quickly fixed. The fixation of the ink droplets to the sheet can be quickly performed, and therefore quality of a printed image on the sheet can be prevented from being reduced by the contact of a printed surface of the sheet with a surround before the printed image is dried. Also, ink can be prevented from being attached to the surround to make the surround dirty by the contact of the sheet with the surround before the printed image is dried.
As a printing apparatus that blows air on a printed sheet to dry the sheet, and thereby more quickly fixes a printed image to the sheet as described, there is a printing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-215776. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-215776 discloses the printing apparatus having a drying device in which dry air supplied from an air blower is blown on a sheet through an air duct formed with a number of nozzles. The dry air supplied from the air duct presses the sheet against a conveying belt, and also the dry air is blown on the sheet to thereby dry the sheet.
However, the drying device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-215776 is configured to press the sheet against the conveying belt with the dry air. Accordingly, the dry air is required to have a flow rate enough to support the sheet. To support the sheet, the dry air having such a large flow rate is uniformly supplied to the sheet, and therefore the air duct is required to have a space enough for the large flow rate dry air to circulate. For this reason, a large-sized air duct is required for the drying device, and thereby the drying device may be increased in size.